Improvement in treating cast-iron for the manufacture of car-wheels



HENRY M. WOODWARD, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

Letters Patent No. 84,041, dcted November 10, 1868.

IMPROVEMENT IN TREATING CAST-IRON FOR THE MANUFACTURE OI.CAR-WHEELS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY M. WOODWARD, of St. Louis, in the county of St. Louis, and State of Misspun, have invented a new and improved Process for Preparing the Metal to be Used in Casting Gar-Wheels; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to understand the same.

This invention relates to improvements in the process of preparing cast-iron, whether in the condition of pig or scrap, for making or casting car-wheels, the object of which is to provide car-wheels of a better and more uniform quality than oaube produced by the common mode. It consists in meltingthe pig-iron or scrap, or both, in a reverberatory furnace, free from contact with the fuel used in the process, and therefore tree, to a large extent, if not tot-ally, from the injurious action of any impuritieg which may exist in the said fuel, such as sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, o'r-any other substance capable of coutaminatingor injuring the quality of the said metal or mixture of metal. It consists, further, in maintaining the said molten metal in the said reverberatory furnace in a molten condition, subject to the oxidizing or decarbonizing-action of the oxygen of the atmosphere whichpasses as a draught over the surface of the said molten mass, until the said molten mass of iron has been, by test-samples, found to be in that condition of decarbonization which will produce the desired thickness of chill on the Taqj and flange of the wheel. This process, istherefore, especially valuable in two respects, and involves the following points:

First. By thesubstitution of the reverberatory for the cupola-furnace, the iron to be used in casting the car-wheel is preserved from contact with the fuel used for melting it, and the consequent injurious action of the contaminating impurities which may exist in said fuel, thereby retaining the normal'strength of the material composing the mixture.

Second. The depth of chill on the face and flange,

or any other surface of the wheel, may be cont-rolled at will by holding the molten metal in thefurnaoe a greater or less length of time, varying commonly from fifteen 'to thirty minutes. z,

I also plunge into the molten metal a green stick, or a some other substance containing moisture, or capable of evolving a gas or gases at the temperature-imparted by the said molten metal, which actcauses ebullition, by which the impurities are, to a greater extent, thrown off.

In connection with and as a partof this process, I use chloride of sodium, or common salt, as a flux, for the purpose of rendering the slag or cinder more fluid, and therefore more readily separable from the metal.

, I use it generally in the proportion of, say, four pounds.

of salt to one ton of iron. I

When, by examination of test-samples, the metal or mixture in the said furnace is found to be sufficiently decarbonized, and capable of producing a chill of the thickness desired, I draw it from the furnace and cast it in chill-moulds, in the usual manner.

I have found, in practice, that this improved process gives greatly-improved results, and that after the metal has been subjected a sufficient length of time to the oxidizing or decarbonizing-action of the atmosphere at a high temperature in the reverberatory furnace, the resulting wheels have an increased capacity to resist tensile strain.

Having thus described my invention,

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Lette1s Patent 1. The herein-described improved process for producing cast-metal car-wheels, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. Gar-wheels produced by the herein-described improved process, as a new a 'cle of manufacture, substantially as and for the' purpose specified.

Witnesses: HENRY M. WOODWARD.

LEONARD WILCOX, Haney MARTIN. 

